Your adviser is independent and will act as an intermediary on your behalf in advising you on Life Assurance, Critical Illness Cover, Income Protection, Private Medical Insurance, Travel plans, Dental plans, Cash Plans and Funeral plans. Because your adviser is an independent intermediary he or she can advise you on the products of different Insurance providers.

 

 

 

(1) West Country Health Care Ltd, 75 Teignmouth Road, Torquay, Devon, TQ1 4ES (“the Brokerage”) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (Member number 307543) and bound by the Financial Services Authority rules in the way in which it conducts business on your behalf.

 

(1.1) The Brokerage is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority to advise on and arrange Life Assurance, Critical Illness Cover, Income Protection and Private Medical Insurance Travel plans, Dental plans, Cash Plans and Funeral plans.

 

 

 

(2) The Brokerage has agreed to give advice on health insurance planning and management in order to construct a personalised health insurance portfolio.

 

 

 

(3.1) You will be classified as a “private customer”/ “commercial customer” as defined under the rules of the Financial Services Authority.

 

(3.2) You may inspect copies of the contract notes, vouchers and entries in the Brokerage”s books or computerised records relating to your transactions. The Brokerage treats all records as confidential and so it reserves the right to provide you with copies of your records rather than allow you to access files containing records of other clients.

 

(3.3) The Brokerage keeps records of its business transactions for at least six years.

 

(3.4) The Brokerage offers independent health insurance advice. If an occasion arises where we or one of our clients has an interest, or we become aware of such interests, in the business we are arranging for you which may conflict with yours, we will disclose this interest to you in writing and obtain your consent before carrying out your instructions.

 

(3.5) When a health insurance product has been arranged for you where you have given instructions, the Brokerage will not review your policy or give you any further advice unless you request it.

 

(3.6) Clients are required to give the Brokerage instructions either in verbal or in writing to avoid possible disputes. Written authorisation is required from you to permit Mrs Susan Colley to act on your behalf and communicate with Insurance Providers and any other parties.

 

(3.7) Any quotations you are given by the Brokerage will be confirmed in writing.

 

 

 

(6) The Brokerage cannot adequately perform its duties and responsibilities to you unless it receives your full co-operation. You therefore agree to provide such information as the Brokerage requires to satisfy the provisions of the Financial Services Act 1986 and Financial Services Authority rules, to discuss objectives, needs and problems candidly and to keep the Brokerage informed of changes in your situation. The Brokerage”s analysis and recommendations will be based upon the data and brief you provide (this brief will include a clear statement of your personal details and medical history).

 

(6.1) You agree to read all documents provided to you and accept the responsibility of notifying the Brokerage within 30 days in the event that you require clarification of any point in any document. In particular, you should ensure that you fully understand the terms, conditions and exclusions of any policies that were implemented on your instructions.

 

(6.2) You may accept or reject completely or in part any recommendation made by the Brokerage and you have sole authority in regard to the implementation, acceptance or rejection of any counselling or advice from the Brokerage.

 

(6.3) You warrant that any policies purchased through the Brokerage are owned beneficially by you and are free from encumbrances.

 

(6.4) You will retain absolute discretion over all policy decisions and the Brokerage will take no initiative in regard to your policy decisions except as hereinafter agreed although on your request the Brokerage will be happy to offer an opinion on the cover of your health insurance portfolio. It is recommended that you should review you medical insurance policy portfolio at renewal of the policy. However, the Brokerage when processing the documentation for renewal of the policies will contact you and assess whether you wish to alter/ upgrade/downgrade your policies.

 

(6.5) Acquisition costs, currency conversion costs and taxes relating to the policy premiums are your responsibility.

 

(6.6) Where a meeting has been agreed 48 hours notice of cancellation or postponement should be given by either party. If you cancel a meeting with less than 48 hours notice or you do not attend the meeting and this time cannot be reallocated for another client meeting the Brokerage you will not be charged a fee for the unallocated time (subject to para.9.1 see below).

 

 

(4.) It is our intention to provide you with a high level of customer service at all times. If you have a complaint about the advice you receive or a product that you have purchased please contact Mrs Susan Colley either verbally or in writing, who will take details of your concerns at the following address West Country Health Care Ltd, Devon, TQ1 4ES or telephone 01803 314600.

 

(4.1) We will acknowledge in writing, advising you of who is dealing with your concerns within five working days. If our investigation takes longer we will provide a full response within 20 days or explain our position and provide time scales for a full response.

 

(4.2) As the Brokerage is a member of the Financial Services Authority should you fail to be satisfied with our final response you are able to have access to the Financial Services Ombudsman , South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London. E14 9SR tel; 0845 0801800 . Outside United Kingdom ; +44 (0) 207 964 1000

 

(4.3) The Brokerage maintains professional indemnity insurance.

 

 

 

(5) All policies purchased on your instructions will be registered in your name or in accordance with your instructions. All contract notes and documents of title in respect of your policies will be forwarded to you within 5 working days of being received by the Brokerage except that where a number of documents relating to a series of transactions are involved the documents may be retained by the Brokerage until the series is complete. The Brokerage may hold your records as paper files or scanned images.

 

(5.1) The premium rates produced by the Brokerage are based on prices provided regularly by Insurance providers. It is possible for errors and omissions to occur and the Brokerage disclaims any liability for any incorrect quotations.

 

(5.2) Most consultations between you and the Brokerage will be by prearranged appointment but you expressly authorise the Brokerage to make calls upon you otherwise than at your express invitation.

 

 

(7) Insurance companies trade under the supervision of the Department of Trade & Industry and/or other Government departments. The Brokerage takes account of information about such companies in the public domain, including reports of financial strength, but if the relevant Government department permits an Insurance company to trade there may be no reason to doubt its solvency. However this cannot be guaranteed.

 

 

(8) Neither the Brokerage nor its employees are qualified to render legal or accounting advice or prepare any legal or accounting documents. It is hereby understood that the onus is on you to refer to your solicitor or accountant any point of law or accountancy which may arise during the course of discussions. If you instruct the Brokerage to refer any matter the Brokerage will, unless otherwise agreed, refer matters of law to your solicitor and accountancy matters to your accountant and those advisers will be solely responsible to you for work done by them or advice given by them.

 

 

(9) The Brokerage has one Principal engaged in the day to day conduct of heath insurance business. In the event that she is unable to carry out your instructions due to illness or other reasons, the Insurance provider that your policy is with will be the party that will then assist you.

 

(9.1) West Country Health Care Ltd will give notice to a client that in the event of unreasonable behavior on the part of the client towards West Country Health Care Ltd the Principal reserves the right to levy a charge if this conduct continues to the detriment of West Country Health Care Ltd.

 

 

(10) Unless otherwise agreed with you, the Brokerage will not charge fees for its services, subject to sub-section (10.1) see below.

 

(10.1) The Brokerage has the discretion to charge reasonable fees where it is decided by Mrs Susan Colley, Principal of West Country Health Care Ltd, that there has been a severe abuse of the Brokerage”s services.

 

(10.2) Fees payable to the Brokerage are not presently subject to VAT .

 

(10.3) It is agreed that where the Brokerage receives a commission payment based on the value of any policies arranged on your behalf, such payment(s) reflect a continuing reward from the product provider to the Brokerage for the introduction of the transaction to which the payment relates.

 

 

(11) The cost of initial advice, ongoing administration and subsequent advice and work undertaken on your behalf will be subject to no fees and our terms of business in force at that time subject to paragraph (9.1) see above.

 

(11.1) The Brokerage offers a review of your health insurance portfolio at your request or on renewal of your policy. This facility is not subject to payment of fees subject to paragraph (9.1) see above.

 

 

(12) The Brokerage obtains information from a wide variety of publicly available sources and has no sources, and does not claim to have sources, of inside or private information. The recommendations offered by the Brokerage are based upon the judgment of the Brokerage and its individual health insurance adviser and the Brokerage cannot guarantee the results of any recommendation. It must be remembered that past performance is not necessarily a reliable guide to future performance and the policy terms and conditions may vary over time.

 

(12.1) The Brokerage will exercise all reasonable skill and care in the performance of its obligations under this agreement to the standard expected of a reasonably competent intermediary experienced in the field of healthcare insurance policies. We promise only good service.

 

(12.2) Recommendations will be confirmed in writing (quotations) outlining why the Brokerage believes the recommendation(s) made is/are appropriate to your circumstances.

 

(12.3) Where the Brokerage agrees to accept the transfer of agency rights for your existing business, the Brokerage will have no responsibility for any losses arising from the advice of any previous adviser(s).

 

 

(13) All information provided to the Brokerage will be treated as confidential and will be disclosed to other advisers, Insurance providers and any other parties with whom the Brokerage is negotiating/communicating on your behalf, only with your prior written authorisation and only to the extent that the Brokerage, in its absolute discretion, considers necessary or as required by law.

 

 

(14.1) In the process of obtaining insurance policies the Brokerage will have to obtain sensitive data from you e.g. information regarding your medical history. If you agree to provide this information, we will take this as your explicit consent to the processing of such information. Your data will be put onto the Brokerage”s database/ manual records and held, processed, disclosed and used by us or Insurance providers and other parties in servicing our/their relationship with you, including identity and money laundering checks. Insurance providers may outsource administration of your business to overseas centres. If you do not agree to this storage, use and disclosure, please write to Mrs Susan Colley, West Country Health Care Ltd, 75 Teignmouth Road , Torquay, Devon , TQ1 4ES .

 

(14.2) The Brokerage will not disclose your personal information to other third party providers for the purposes of contacting you by post , telephone, fax or e-mail about their products and services.

 

(14.3) We will treat all your personal information as private and confidential (even when you are no longer a customer) except where disclosure is made at your request. You have a right of access under the Data Protection Act 1984 & 1998 to personal records held on our computer files.

 

(14.4) As part of Financial Services Authority duties we may be asked to provide them with access to our customer records in order that they may carry out an audit on our activities.

 

 

(15) This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales and be subject to the jurisdiction of the English courts.

 

 

(16) Either party may terminate this agreement, at any time, without penalty. Notice of this termination must be given in writing. Such termination will be without prejudice to either party´s obligation to complete transactions already initiated on your instructions whether written or verbal.

 

(16.1) After termination of this agreement the Brokerage will not execute any further transactions except at your specific request and subject to a new agreement being entered into.

 

(16.2) If commission is received and the relevant policy cancelled or amended by you, so that commission is then repayable by the Brokerage to the Insurance provider, the Brokerage will not invoice you for the cost of the repayment of the commission, although you may be liable to Brokerage costs as outlined under paragraph (9.1) see above.

 

 

(17) We are obliged to conform to the UK Money Laundering regulations which require financial institutions to confirm the identity and place of residence of each client. This may require sight of certain documentation and/ or checking with a credit reference agency, the electoral roll or directory enquiries in order to verify your details. A credit reference agency may record the search. We take no responsibility for any delay in the purchasing of a policy where money-laundering verification is needed.

 

 

(18) The Brokerage never accepts a cheque made out to the Brokerage (unless in settlement of fees for its services in accordance to paragraph 9.1 see above) or handle cash. All cheques for premiums must be made payable to the relevant Insurance provider.

 

 

(19) A person who is not a party to this Agreement shall have no right to enforce any of its terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, or under any other right or remedy.

 

I/We confirm that I/We have received a copy of this term of business, agree to all parts of this agreement and engage the Brokerage as Independent Medical Insurance Adviser.

 

Signature.................................... Date............./........../................

 

 

Signature.................................... Date............./........../................

 

 

 

Authorised Signatory......................... Date............./........../................

For and behalf of the Brokerage

 

PLEASE DELETE AS APPLICABLE.